New workaround helps keep Siri running on jailbroken iPhone 4

Siri can run on an iPhone 4, despite the fact that Apple limits the feature to …

Jailbreak hacker "chpwn" has developed a new tool that helps iPhone 4 users run Siri, Apple's mobile "personal assistant," on jailbroken devices. His new software, called Spire, claims to avoid copyright issues associated with earlier Siri hacks and improves privacy by allowing users to specify their own proxy server to handle communication between an iPhone 4 and Apple's servers.

Apple still considers Siri a beta feature, so it's possible that Apple wanted to reduce the number of variables in testing the service by having it run on a single platform—i.e. the iPhone 4S. Despite this, iOS hackers were able to reverse engineer how Siri communicates with Apple's servers for the necessary speech-to-text conversion and get it running on an iPhone 4.

Earlier hacks involved possible copyright infringement by using unauthorized copies of the Siri software extracted from the iOS 5 firmware for the iPhone 4S. Spire copies these files directly from Apple's servers, supposedly skirting the copyright issue (though we're sure Apple's lawyers might have something to say about that). Other hacks also relied on a fixed proxy server to communicate with Apple's servers—a potential privacy hole—while Spire lets you configure your own. Siri still requires authentication keys that are automatically regenerated every 24 hours on an iPhone 4S, however, so Spire still remains an incomplete solution to permanently running Siri on non-iPhone 4S hardware.

Siri still requires authentication keys that are automatically regenerated every 24 hours on an iPhone 4S, however, so Spire still remains an incomplete solution to permanently running Siri on non-iPhone 4S hardware.

That's how I read it. Only hackers who own a 4S and want to enter a new authentication code every day need apply. This is really just proof of concept, not a practical implementation. Too bad, because I'd love to have it on my 4. Beta or not, I assume that as the biggest differentiator between the 4 and the 4S, Apple will never let it go for older devices.

Siri can run on an iPhone 4, despite the fact that Apple limits the feature to the new iPhone 4S.

Duh?

yticolev wrote:

Beta or not, I assume that as the biggest differentiator between the 4 and the 4S, Apple will never let it go for older devices.

I don't. The 4S stands on its own just fine to be honest, stuff like Infinity Blade 2 and whatever future apps are significantly more impressive as differentiators. It seems pretty safe to assume that the major issue has nothing to do with the phone at all, it has to do with the server side. Apple has had problems keeping the service up even with limiting it to only new 4Ss, and without the server component the service is useless to everyone. If Apple had simply had every device they've sold hitting the thing week 1 it's obvious that it would have been total disaster, with headlines dominated by "Major Apple Server Outages Trip Up New Phone!!" Apple has a poor history of online services, really poor, and I don't blame them for taking it slow. If Apple was less terrible and had devoted effort to this at some point during the last decade maybe they would be in better shape now, but so it goes.

Siri can run on an iPhone 4, despite the fact that Apple limits the feature to the new iPhone 4S.

Duh?

yticolev wrote:

Beta or not, I assume that as the biggest differentiator between the 4 and the 4S, Apple will never let it go for older devices.

I don't. The 4S stands on its own just fine to be honest, stuff like Infinity Blade 2 and whatever future apps are significantly more impressive as differentiators. It seems pretty safe to assume that the major issue has nothing to do with the phone at all, it has to do with the server side. Apple has had problems keeping the service up even with limiting it to only new 4Ss, and without the server component the service is useless to everyone. If Apple had simply had every device they've sold hitting the thing week 1 it's obvious that it would have been total disaster, with headlines dominated by "Major Apple Server Outages Trip Up New Phone!!" Apple has a poor history of online services, really poor, and I don't blame them for taking it slow. If Apple was less terrible and had devoted effort to this at some point during the last decade maybe they would be in better shape now, but so it goes.

As a consumer I cannot find sympathy for a company with 80+ billions in the bank. I don't buy your explanation as it is not like every 4s user speaks to siri 24/day. Siri is an example of forced product differentiation. So what if their history on cloud services is not flattering, must they get a pass for that just because it is your favorite company ? Criticism in this regard is due I'm afraid.

It seems like excessive effort for what you get out of it. I've tried using Siri on my 4s - she gets crucial details wrong most of the time, and whenever she is wrong you generally end up using more time than what it would have taken to do it manually. She is also generally useless in a noisy environment.

Some in this thread claim that Siri is a case of forced product differentiation. My question is, so what? Is this something that's new to companies selling yearly updated products in general, or Apple in particular?

They add the most marketable feature to the newest device because they want you to buy the newest device. They're a business, that's kind of the idea isn't it? If they had gone to the point of not allowing Reminders or the Notification Center on older devices, I'd say that would be very out of line.

What is Apple doing with differentiation here that's different from any other company selling a new product they want you to buy?

EDIT: As I think about it, I suppose the issue people are having is that the differentiation Apple has done up to this point has been hardware. I suppose that's why some people aren't digging this?

As a consumer I cannot find sympathy for a company with 80+ billions in the bank.

What does "sympathy" have to do with it? It's just reality. It's also vaguely cute to see that there are still armchair IT experts who believe in garbage like the man-month. And please understand that by "cute" I mean "stupid and irritating".

Quote:

I don't buy your explanation as it is not like every 4s user speaks to siri 24/day.

You don't buy my explanation of what? That Apple's server-side system was overwhelmed just by 4S users and caused Siri to go down on occasion already? Because that's not an "explanation" bro, that's fact. It happened, it was covered on Ars amongst other places. Nobody can just go in and create a system like that cold without extensive experience, online it and expect all to go well. Even big and experienced companies that focus on things like that have issues from time to time (witness Amazon's troubles with their cloud services this year, and they're probably the best in the world), and Apple absolutely does not have the experience there at all. They never have, it's always been one of their glaring weak points.

Quote:

Siri is an example of forced product differentiation.

Because Lord Andrei says so? Well argued!

Quote:

So what if their history on cloud services is not flattering,

"So what if they suck at it, this time they'll magically get it right thanks to $$$$"? Nope.

Quote:

...must they get a pass for that just because it is your favorite company ?

So in AndreiWorld(TM), saying a company is terrible at something and has been consistently terrible for a decade and that there's no reason to expect them to get it instantly right this time around either counts as favoring them? Fascinating!

Quote:

Criticism in this regard is due I'm afraid.

Oh there's criticism warranted alright, but not where you seem to think.

Correct me if I am wrong but I understood that Siri runs like a dog on the iPhone 4. I thought that was the main reason that Apple didn't offer support for older devices.

The heavy lifting for Siri happens server-side, so if you meant in some particular CPU-bound way then you are incorrect. The only major hardware differentiator on the 4S is a reasonably improved noise-cancelling microphone. In some environments this may significantly improve Siri's performance simply by helping to to make the signal (your voice) better versus the noise (the guy in the apartment above you with a speaker system that appears to have its own dedicated electrical substation). Particularly if it has issues recognizing voice anyway (which should in theory improve as they gain more and more real world data) the clearer the input the better it may perform.

The way they've got it set up though Apple should be able to run it on damn near anything with a good enough mic. Some future AppleTV could be a good fit for example. They need to have enough backend however, and it has to perform well enough to really be a standard marquee feature. A staggered rollout makes sense from an operations perspective, though longer term if they don't push it out more widely it would be disappointing.

Apple's product differentiation often does not have an air of being so forced, with, simplifying the concept, a beta product being pushed as the main draw to purchase.

Y3k-Bug wrote:

A question for the group, as I'm curious:

Some in this thread claim that Siri is a case of forced product differentiation. My question is, so what? Is this something that's new to companies selling yearly updated products in general, or Apple in particular?

They add the most marketable feature to the newest device because they want you to buy the newest device. They're a business, that's kind of the idea isn't it? If they had gone to the point of not allowing Reminders or the Notification Center on older devices, I'd say that would be very out of line.

What is Apple doing with differentiation here that's different from any other company selling a new product they want you to buy?

EDIT: As I think about it, I suppose the issue people are having is that the differentiation Apple has done up to this point has been hardware. I suppose that's why some people aren't digging this?

For those of you doubting that Siri is an example of Apple limiting the access to technology for purely marketing reasons, I suggest you consider this fact:

Siri was available, since early 2010 (as a final product, not a beta), in the iOS app store for all models of the iPhone (including the original EDGE model), iPod Touch and iPad. Apple purchased the developer in April 2010, immediately canceling the development of the non-iOS ports. Shortly before the announcement of the iPhone 4S, they removed the app from the store and then, on the eve of the iPhone 4S' launch, Apple revoked the authentication keys for non-iPhone 4S installations of the app.

It has nothing to do with performance on the handset -- the Siri app is simply a thin-client for the service's servers, which do all the heavy lifting of speech translation and query interpretation, before handing it off to the appropriate 3rd party information provider.

As a former user of Siri, this disappoints me to no end. As a former Apple employee/developer, this doesn't surprise me in the least.